Recently I was invited to attend the Saratoga Springs Food Tour, in Saratoga!

From the website:

Our cultural walking tour pairs delicious food with tales of Saratoga Springs history. This 2.5 hour tour is suitable for all age groups and fitness levels. We start with a leisurely stroll through Saratoga’s famous farmer’s market before walking to taste some of Broadway’s finest treats. Along the way you will learn about the culture, history and architecture of one of New York State’s most interesting cities.

Saturday Chris and I drove up to do the tour–it was a beautiful day and we were very excited!

We met at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market where Joe, to the tour guide, gave us each a bottle of Saratoga water so we’d stay hydrated on our tour. Very important!

Our first stop on the tour was the So Lively Tapenade booth at the farmer’s market.

We sampled the home made chips and the tapenade.

There were two flavors, the original tapenade and roasted red pepper. Both were delicious!

We also got a baggie of chips to enjoy.

AND I bet you didn’t know, the first potato chip created was made in Saratoga Springs…

The next stop was the cheese and yogurt booth! Heck yes.

Argyle Cheese Farm had some of the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted! We got a sample of the maple greek yogurt. It was so rich and creamy. They make their yogurt with only a few ingredients, milk and cultures, so it is all natural and healthy.

In a blind taste test, their yogurt was voted the best greek yogurt against some of the popular New York-made yogurt brands out there. As we know, New York seems to be the capital of greek yogurt.

I would love to get my hands on some of their yogurt again!

We hit a few more vendors at the market, and then we got a little history lesson on the water of Saratoga Springs, which was what made Saratoga famous in the first place.

I had no idea there were actual springs you could drink from scattered all throughout the city.

The water is coming directly from the ground, pretty neat! I sampled a little bit, it was like bubbly sulfur water–haha.

Our next stop on the tour was the Olde Bryan Inn.

We sat on the patio and enjoyed an appetizer, mine was a roasted red pepper bruchetta. It was delicious.

We learned all about the history of the Inn–so fascinating.

Next up:

This was one of the coolest stores I’ve been in! The Saratoga Olive Oil Co–where you can sample SO MANY different types of olive oil and different flavors of balsamic.

One of my favorites — the Thai lemongrass mint balsamic. I also really loved the mango!

This olive oil was a favorite, too.

Next we went to Saratoga Salsa and Spice shop.

We got to sample some realllly good salsas, like the autumn salsa and the cranberry salsa! My favorites.

Chris and a few other brave souls tried some of the more spicier ones–like the Scorpion Salsa…craziness. The scorpion pepper is the world’s hottest pepper…

Chris liked it enough to buy a jar…he’s crazy.

And last but not least–my favorite portion the tour. Dessert!

Eugene makes the gelato right here and it all looked so amazing! I sampled a few and ended up going with the sea salt and caramel combined with the rocky road.

An awesome end to such a fun (and filling) tour!!! I want to thank Joe for inviting me and Chris to the Saratoga Food Tour ! He was a great tour guide. It was so much fun and we learned a lot. I would highly recommend this tour if you want to explore Saratoga Springs on a nice day, or if you have guests visiting and you want to something fun in the Capital Region. Check out the details on Saratoga Springs Food Tours Website.

I ended up meeting Alicia after the tour! She took us on another mini tour of Congress Park!

It was SUCH a gorgeous day out.

We really enjoyed our time in Saratoga!